


Future

by jenniferjun1per



Series: Rebelcaptain Week [7]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Post-Battle of Scarif, Tumblr Prompt, well eventually they do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 10:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10637796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenniferjun1per/pseuds/jenniferjun1per
Summary: They grow old together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Rebelcaptain Week on tumblr - Day 7: Future
> 
> *Quotes from the Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed

**Cassian**

 

Death was a concept Cassian learned very early in his life. Born into war, and recruited as a child, death was an inescapable occurrence. As the years went by and the missions became more dangerous, the thought of mortality was a constant and unwelcome companion.

 

You had to shelve it, you had to expect to die, you had to have no fear in slipping the suicide pill concealed in your transponder into your mouth, if the mission warranted it.

 

He had never expected to live long, never really gave thought to the future. There was no future in war, no end in sight to the killing. He lived every day as needed, performed his duties as needed. Go to sleep, wake up, repeat.

 

So when his life altered, when a future opened up to him, it was so foreign a concept it made his head spin. Suddenly there was no Death Star, suddenly there was a chance to beat the Empire. The future was bright, made even brighter with Jyn by his side.

 

He grew old, and there was peace in the galaxy. Children and then grandchildren surrounded him, he walked slower, stiffer. His hair and his beard greyed, and he lost count of the lines appearing around his eyes and the corners of his mouth. The joints in his fingers ached, which meant he couldn’t hold a blaster anymore, but he could still hold his youngest grandson. Jyn, his beautiful wife, grew more and more beautiful with age, and sometimes he couldn’t stop staring at her.

 

_ This is a life _ , he would think, as he watched his grandchildren play, and he would marvel at how he got there.  _ This is a life _ , he would think, as he took his wife’s hand in his, her fingers bent with age just as much as his.

 

_ This was a life _ , he finally thought, as he lay on their bed, surrounded by everyone he loved, and he committed all of their loving faces to memory.  _ This was my life _ , he thought, as his eyes closed for the last time.

 

“When Cassian Andor died, he would be ready, and he would be content.”

 

**Jyn**

 

When she watched her mother die in front of her, death had become all too real for Jyn. Of course, she had still hoped, had waited in that hatch for her mother to come for her. But in time, Jyn learned everyone left her. Whether they were taken from her, or left her of their own will, they always left. And death ultimately took everyone in the end.

 

She saw death up close fighting with Saw’s Partisans, trying her hardest not to get close to anyone. It was better not to think about all of those who died.

 

In Wobani, death was almost certain, Jyn had accepted that. If it wasn’t her cellmate doing her in, then it would most certainly be something else. In Wobani, you only waited for death.

 

When the Rebellion gave her something to live for, thoughts of her mortality were parsed away, still ever present, but not lingering in the forefront of her mind. When her mission was accomplished, when a future could now be glimpsed, she jumped into it with both eyes wide open. It was a chance the universe was giving her, an opportunity to live her life, just as her father had wanted for her.

 

She fought hard against an empire that had taken everything from her, alongside someone who had given her something of herself back, something of herself to believe in again. He never left her side, from those days when he went back for her again and again, he continued that through a lifetime of service to the cause, and to her.

 

She grew old without thought or fear, sometimes unnoticed. She would sometimes wonder why she couldn’t move like she used to, and then she would remember she wasn’t young anymore. She watched with misty eyes her daughters at eight, at sixteen, at twenty-one, at ages she never thought she would surpass. She sparred with her daughters and granddaughters, wanting them to learn how to fight, but also wanting to show them she wasn’t an old lady yet. She taught them to be fierce, to be strong, but to have love and hope and forgiveness in their hearts.

 

She lived longer than she ever expected, loved him longer than she could have ever hoped. She would let him hold her arm, support him when they went for quiet walks, his many injuries over the years finally catching up to him. He would reminisce, and she would keep silent, just listening to the timbre of his voice, still unchanged after all these years. They had settled on this planet because it reminded them of Yavin IV, where they had met. Cassian would always repeat the story, on their many walks through the humid jungle.

 

When he was gone she would walk alone, wondering why he had been taken before her. Soon enough she couldn’t walk anymore, and she lay in their bed, surrounded by loving faces with aching hearts. She smiled at each and every one of them, not wanting them to be sad. She was proud of her life, proud of herself, proud of Cassian, proud of all of them. The cave, which she hadn’t thought of in so long, was now bathed in bright light, and soon it disappeared altogether.

The memories of her life came unbidden, and everything she was and became shimmered in her mind.

 

“Soon all those things, too, burned away, and Jyn Erso - finally at peace - became one with the Force.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, I'm so sorry (please don't kill me). But at least they got to grow old together?


End file.
